Commit to Violence (3 page)

"Something like that. Come on," Black said and opened the gate. On the way up the steps, both Black and Bobby took out their guns and put their silencers on. Black rang the bell and they stepped to either side of the door.

"Who is it?" a voice came back.

"It’s Rawls. Open up."

As soon as the man opened the door, Black shot him in the head. They entered in time to see a man come out of the living room. He fired two shots at Black and Bobby then ran up the stairs.

"I got him," Black said. "You go find Ebony."

Black followed the man up the steps just as he ran into a room. When Black entered the room, the man came out from behind the door and knocked the gun out of Black’s hand.

Black turned around and kicked the gun out of the man’s hand before he got a shot off, and punched him in the face. Then he grabbed him by his belt and his collar, and threw him through the glass and out the window.

When Black got back downstairs, he saw Bobby coming out of the basement with Ebony. "What happened?"

"When I got down there, one of them was holding her with a gun to her head," Bobby said as they walked out the door.

"What’d you do?"

"I shot him," Bobby said.

"Who are you guys?" Ebony asked.

"It’s all right, honey. We’re friends of Martin Marshall. He sent us to find you," Bobby said as they passed the man Black threw out the window. His body was draped over a metal fence with a spike coming out of his back. "What happened to him?"

"What does it look like? I threw him out the window."

"Just askin’."

CHAPTER FIVE

Mike Black sat in his office at Cuisine and waited for Bobby and Nick to get there. When he got the call from Cynt that Kenny and three of his men had been murdered in the street, he was shocked, then he got mad, and then he became reflective. Black thought about those he’d lost over the years; and two inparticular.

Losing his wife Cassandra was probably the hardest thing he ever had to deal with in his life. There were times when no matter what he did or how hard he tried, he could not stop thinking about her. Although the time he recently spent in the Bahamas with CeCe allowed him to have some closure about her death, Cassandra and the great love he felt for her was still never far from his thoughts.

But as hard as that was to deal with, at times like this, it was Freeze that he missed. As much as he hated to admit it, he had made a mistake putting Nick in charge. It wasn’t that things had gone all that wrong. It was more that Nick didn’t have the same feel for the job that Freeze brought to the work.

Nick never wanted the job, Black pushed it on him. For his part, Nick would have been perfectly content to takeover the high-stakes poker game that Jackie Washington now ran for him. Maybe that’s what he should have done, and made Jackie continue to work with Travis and Monika on the very-lucrative projects they brought to the table.

Recently, changes in the global economy forced Black to rethink their push to go completely legitimate. They had lost a lot of money on some of the investments that they made with Meka Brazil. Meka’s understanding of the business climate in this country led her to believe that the best opportunity for long-term investment existed offshore. "China, India and even Russia are where the growth markets are at this point," Meka told them at their last meeting.

Black liked Meka; thought she was smart. He hadn’t even mentioned his new Chinese-backed investment group to Meka, and she was already looking in that direction. Black didn’t blame her for the major losses they took. There was no way she could have anticipated the changes in the market. At least she hadn’t invested in credit default swaps or mortgage backed securities, which played a factor in bringing the markets down.

For the time being, Black had decided that he would have to put plans for business expansion to the side. Now was the time to focus his attention on the real money maker. From his point of view, the recession had improved rather than hurt his business.
Hard times make people more likely to gamble and men more likely to buy more pussy tryin’ to escape from reality,
he thought as Bobby and Nick came in
.

"I guess you’ve heard?" Black asked.

"Any idea who did it?" Bobby asked.

"No," Black said. "I just heard about it."

"I got everybody out askin’ questions," Nick said. "But so far, nobody’s heard anything."

"Somebody knows something," Black said. "You need to find them and make them tell you what you want to know."

"I’m on it, Black." Nick assured Black.

"Ain’t that Detective Harmon over there in the corner?" Bobby noticed.

"Looks like him," Black said. "What’s he doin’ here?" he asked.

"He’s here to see me," Nick said. "The detective is doing some work for me."

"What kind of work?" Black asked.

Nick looked at Black. "You wanna hear about this?" He asked Black, knowing that he was trying to stay out of the day-to-day stuff.

"I do," Bobby said definitely.

Black nodded his head. He would tell both Nick and Bobby of his decision to step back in, later.

"Bo’s got something goin’—something big. And he forgot to tell me about it," Nick continued.

"What’s the deal?" Bobby asked.

"I don’t know. That’s what I got Harmon lookin’ in to."

"You sure you can trust Harmon?" Bobby asked.

"I’ve done business with him before," Nick told them. "Let’s see what he’s got. I’ll be right back.

Until a month ago, Jack Harmon was a decorated New York City homicide detective. He was under investigation for use of excessive force. The charges were dropped, but not before Jack ran up a huge legal bill. It was only by chance that he ran into Nick and told him about a surveillance job. "It pays five grand," Nick told Jack that day. Being broke, Jack couldn’t say no.

"What you got for me, Jack?" Nick asked as soon as he sat down with the detective.

"Your boy Bo is doing business with the Russian mob," Jack said.

Nick sat back in his chair. Bo having a deal with the Russian mob was the last thing he expected to hear. "Ex-KGB agents, veterans of the Afghan and Chechen wars; out-of-work but with skills that are useful to criminal organizations," Nick said and thought about how useful his military experience had been to him.

"Bo’s contact is a guy named Nikolai Mikhailov. He’s a member of the Izmaylovskaya Gang.

"Never heard of them," Nick said and signaled for a waitress.

"They’re considered one of the country’s most important and oldest Russian Mafia groups in Moscow," Jack said. "But they operate here in New York, in Tel Aviv, Paris, Toronto, and Miami."

"How strong are they?"

"My information says they’re estimated to consist of about anywhere from three to five hundred active member’s worldwide. It’s run on a quasi-military style and strict internal discipline."

"What are they into?" Nick asked.

"They’re involved extensively in murder-for-hire, extortion, and infiltration of legitimate businesses. A lot like you guys."

"When is the job goin’ down?"

"Tonight at ten."

Nick looked at Jack, took an envelope out of his pocket and put it on the table in front of him. Jack opened the envelope and peeked inside. "Thanks, Nick. This will help out a lot with my legal bills. Any time you need info like that, you give me a call," Jack said and got up.

"Anything else I can do for you, Jack, you let me know," Nick said and rejoined Black and Bobby. He wasted no time telling them who Bo was doing business with.

"Bo had made a deal to deliver high-end vehicles to the Russian mob," Nick said. "Ever heard of the Izmaylovskaya Gang?"

"I think I might know somebody connected to them," Black said.

"You mean that Russian you and Angelo drink with sometimes?" Bobby asked.

"That’s right. He’s ex-KGB turned showdown artist."

"He fits the profile," Nick said.

"This really doesn’t create a problem for us, does it?" Bobby asked.

"Not from where I’m sittin’. Doin’ business with the Russians is a good thing," Nick said. "Only problem is Bo thinkin’ he could get something like this done and think nobody would know about it."

"How’d you find out about it?" Bobby asked.

"Victor’s fuckin’ Sabrina," Nick said and laughed.

"That pillow talk will fuck up a nigga’s program every time," Bobby commented. And he was absolutely right.

"The only time she can get away from Bo is when he got something goin’. She tells Victor, he tells me."

"What you gonna do about Bo?" Black asked. He knew the minute he told Bo that Nick was in charge that this was coming.

"Don’t worry, Black, I can handle Bo. He can’t make a stray nickel with me knowing about it."

"That ain’t what I mean. There are some people whose respect you’ll never earn, Nick. You can’t have a mutha fucka like that in your house. Sooner or later you’ll have to deal with him before he comes after you."

"Mike’s right, Nick," Bobby added. "Just him tryin’ some shit like this, it gives other niggas the idea that they can do it too."

Black thought about Freeze. "You know what Freeze would do?"

Nick laughed. "He would go over there right now and kill Bo."

"I ain’t sayin’ that’s what you should do. You handle Bo any way you want. All I’m sayin’ is sooner or later you’re gonna have to deal with him."

"I understand," Nick said and got up. "I’m gonna go have a talk with Bo."

"You do that. And then I want you to see what you can find out about Kenny."

"I’m on it," Nick said, and Black watched him as he left Cuisine.

"Who do you think’s gonna move first?" Bobby asked.

"My money’s on Bo."

"Word I get is that Bo thinks he should be running things, and he blames Nick for Freeze bein’ dead," Bobby said.

"I heard that too. That’s why I told Nick he’s gonna have to kill Bo. But he needs to decide that for himself."

"You’re right," Bobby said and sipped his drink. "Where you goin’?" Bobby asked as Black got up.

"Goin’ to see if I can find out anything about what happened to Kenny."

"Didn’t you just send Nick to do that?" Bobby said and followed Black toward the door.

"So I wanna ask a few questions myself," Black said. "What else you got to do?"

CHAPTER SIX

When Black and Bobby got outside, they got in Bobby’s car. They had driven for a while and Black noticed that Bobby was uncharacteristically quiet. Since he had a lot on his mind, Black didn’t mind, but there was a question he had to know the answer to.

"What’s bothering you?"

"Nothing," Bobby replied as he drove.

"Nothing, huh? Well, let me ask you this then; what was up with you last night?"

"What you mean?"

"I mean you chopped the guy’s toes off with an ax."

Bobby laughed. "The shit worked, didn’t it?"

"That’s not the point."

"Well, what’s the point then?" Bobby asked angrily.

"I just never saw you like that before, that’s all," Black said and decided it was best to back off.

They had driven for a while in silence when Bobby looked at Black and said, "Pam wants a divorce."

"That’s what’s bothering you."

"And she’s talking about moving to South Carolina with the kids."

"That’s fucked up. What did you do this time?"

"I got home one night and the house was fucked up. I mean, shit was thrown everywhere. I looked around for the kids, but they were gone. I finally found Pam sitting in the basement. She said some woman called the house asking for me."

"Same old Bobby. Didn’t you learn shit from fuckin’ around with Cat?" Black asked referring to the last woman Bobby had an affair with.

Cat decided it was a good idea to call Pam and tell her that she had just gotten finished fucking Bobby, and he would still be there if Black hadn’t called and asked Bobby to pick him up. That forced Pam to have to deal with the situation in a way that nobody ever thought she was capable of.

After that, Pam had a nervous breakdown. When she got out of the hospital, she told Bobby that even after what he put her through, she could be a good mother to the children and a good wife to Bobby, but she couldn’t bring herself to have sex with him.

After that, they came to an understanding. Pam understood that if she wasn’t gonna give Bobby any pussy, somebody else would. "Just keep it away from me and the kids. I won’t go through what I went through again," Pam told Bobby. And that was fine with him. So it was settled. Bobby did his thing and kept it away from his family. Until now.

"Yeah, I did, but I swear, Mike, it ain’t like that this time."

"What’s her name?"

"Ivillisa Ortiz. Little Puerto Rican ho I fucked a couple of times. I don’t even know how she got my number."

"What she say to Pam?"

"Nothing; just asked to speak to me, and if she saw me to tell me that she’ll be at home waitin’ for me."

"That’s a little more than nothing, Bob. It was enough to set Pam off and make her tear up the house and ask for a divorce."

"No shit."

"What you gonna do now?" Black asked as Bobby pulled the car over.

"I don’t know," Bobby said and put the car in park.

"Your choices are simple. Either you’re gonna be what Pam wants or you’re not."

"No shit," Bobby said and started to get out of the car. "You coming?" he asked and got out of the car.

They went inside the convenience store and walked up to the young woman at the counter. "He here?" Black asked.

"He’s in the back," she said and pointed.

"Thanks," Black said and headed for the back.

"Hey, Bobby," the woman said flirtatiously.

"Hey, Debra," Bobby winked and followed Black.

"What? You fuck her too?"

"Prettiest titties I ever saw, but she couldn’t fuck her way out of a paper bag," Bobby said.

Black shook his head and opened the office door. Bobby followed him in.

"Black; Bobby," Sherman Williams said and stood up to shake hands. He had been running numbers out of that store for years. Sherman also had a reputation for keeping his mouth shut and his ears opened.

"What’s goin’ on, Sherman?" Bobby asked.

"Money. Lots of fun and lots of money. Same as every other day. What brings you two high-rollers up here?"

"You heard about Kenny?" Black asked.

"Yeah, I heard about it. Shame, too—dirty shame. Kenny was good people. Honest as far as that goes in this business."

"You heard anything about who killed him?" Bobby asked him.

"I ain’t heard shit about Kenny. But I tell you what I have been hearin’. And I can’t say that it had anything to do with Kenny, but I keep hearin’ it from a lot of people—people who know what’s up—that something big is gettin’ ready to go down around here," Sherman told Black and Bobby.

"That does us a lot of fuckin’ good," Black said. "Something’s gonna happen, something big, but you don’t know what."

"Sorry, Black, that’s all I got, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything else."

"You do that."

"Have you talked to Luke?"

"No."

"I did hear that he was with Kenny last night when it happened."

"Why didn’t you tell us that shit before?"

"Sorry," Sherman said as he watched Black and Bobby walk out.